7/20/2549

Glowing references and a solar eclipse:)

I'm in the final stages of putting together my application to go to Singapore on exchange... almost there!

Part of the process is getting references from two academic staff. I'm not technically supposed to see what they have written about me, but both of them provided me with an envelope and said "I won't seal it".

How nice:

"Fon is a very able and independent learner with intense intellectual energy and curiosity [sic]. She has shown great initiative in following her academic interests and a maturity beyond her year level. In addition to her intellectual abilities she has excellent social skills and great intercultural adaptability. Highly recommended."

"Valisa would be an excellent candidate for student exchange program. She is reliable, commited [sic] to her studies, and very enthusiastic about subjects in philosophy. She got an excellent grade and is very good in discussion. Overall, good candidate to show off Monash Undergrads abroad."


Hehehe... shamelessly promoting myself, am I? :P

This is way better than a friendster testimonial!

After a discussion with my philosophy lecturer, I found that she was trying to convince me to do philosophy honours. Since I am already planning to do linguistics honours, she said "why don't you do a combined honours?"... Erm...

Well... seems like a good plan, but the problem is that my interests in philosophy and my interests in linguistics are slightly divergent...

But more crucially, besides that, I won't have finished my major in Philosophy yet when I go off to Singapore.

But the prospect of a combined honours degree does sound exciting, so I may choose to simply stay in Melbourne and do the coursework at Monash. Besides, there's someone I don't really want to be apart from for too long :)

Well, for now, I'll just put in the application for linguistics honours abroad and see which path this semester steers me down.

On another note, for those of you interested in eclipses, here are a couple nice pictures (click on them to see more!). I bumped into a friend, Lashi, today, and he's a rare breed indeed. He likes to chase eclipses around the world!